The Franco-Lebanese writer Amin Maalouf. (Credit: AFP/archive)
An initiative aimed at teaching literary heritage in France's various regional dialects received unexpected support on Monday from Lebanese author and perpetual secretary of the Académie Française, Amin Maalouf.
The Beirut-born author of mixed Turkish and Lebanese heritage was elected in 2023 as the head of the academy, tasked with upholding the influence and integrity of the French language.
But Maalouf has also come out in support of the Collective for Literature in Regional Languages, which recommends middle and high schools have curricula in regional languages, according to the collective's statement to AFP.
French is France's only official language, but the country has dozens of regional languages, recognized by the government, including Alsatian, Basque, Breton, Catalan, Corsican, Francoprovençal, Occitan, and the langues d’oïl, a dialect continuum composed of several northern dialects.
The collective has written to Prime Minister François Bayrou and Education Minister Elisabeth Borne to propose a corpus of works in regional languages for teachers, aiming to raise awareness of the "richness of literary production" in languages other than French.
"Mr. Maalouf — like ourselves — is convinced that it is necessary for students in France to be aware of these cultural treasures," the letter to Bayrou, who himself speaks Béarnais, reads. The Collective for Literature in Regional Languages, with the help of specialists, has compiled a collection titled "Florilangues" with 32 texts in their original languages, ranging from Alsatian to Tahitian, including Basque and Corsican, translated into French.
This includes, among others, a poem in Provençal by Frédéric Mistral (Nobel Prize for Literature 1904), "Mirèio," a Breton chronicle by Pierre-Jakez Hélias, "Bugale ar Republik," a short story in Martiniquan Creole by Raphaël Confiant, "Bitako-a," and a Picard song by Alexandre Desrousseaux, "Canchon dormoire" (better known as "P'tit Quinquin").
"The idea is not to offer regional language courses but to present works from regional literatures, whether in French or as bilingual versions," the collective states. Ideally, students would study languages from regions other than their own. "Why should only Caribbean students learn that there is literature in Creole?" asks the collective. The initiative was presented to the press during a virtual conference on Monday afternoon.